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Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

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Compound Fracture

by Andrew Joseph White

Narrator Dani Martineck

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Length 9 hours 42 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“A love story to Appalachia and the coal miners who fought back. A love story to the people who see West Virginia as the beautiful state it can be with the right leadership. This coming of age story has grit and dirt rubbed into the wounds queer Appalachian kids grow up with. Andrew Joseph White doesn't stray away from anything and his love for WV shines through. ”
— Chelsea Semonco • Four Seasons Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Gripping and visceral, this is a coming-of-age thriller that keeps its promises and doesn’t pull any punches. ”
— Oli • Boswell Book Company

Bookseller recommendation

“Andrew Joseph White just doesn’t miss. Compound Fracture is yet another stunning, visceral novel from the absolute master of trans YA horror. Miles is proud of his Appalachian heritage, but it ain’t easy being an Abernathy. The brutal murder of his great-great-grandfather—an outspoken socialist, labor organizer, and coal miner—ignited a decades-long blood feud that has Miles beaten to within an inch of his life in the book’s first pages. What follows is a bloody, beautiful story about finding power in family—past and present, touching on radical politics, the opioid crisis, and trans erasure and with much-needed undiagnosed autistic representation. Dani Martineck’s narration is incredible. Read this instead of Hillbilly Elegy.”
— Mary • Raven Book Store

Bookseller recommendation

“Andrew Joseph White has taken us to: an eco-Christofascist apocalypse, a Victorian asylum full of spirits and mediums, and now an Appalachia haunted by blood feuds and class war. This is his most unputdownable book yet, a bloody tour-de-force, mining and queering West Virginia’s buried socialist history, with a lovable, neurodivergent, rage-fueled transboy at the center and a whole lot of gore all around him. Prepare to be hurt, haunted, and ultimately heartened. As always, check content warnings! ”
— Megan • Underground Books

Summary
About the author

#17 in Bestselling YA Fiction Audiobooks

From bestselling and award-winning author Andrew Joseph White, a queer Appalachian thriller that pulls no punches—following a trans autistic teen who's drawn into the generational struggle between the rural poor and those who exploit them.

On the night Miles Abernathy—sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian—comes out as trans to his parents, he sneaks off to a party, carrying evidence that may finally turn the tide of the blood feud plaguing Twist Creek: Photos that prove the county’s Sheriff Davies was responsible for the so-called “accident” that injured his dad, killed others, and crushed their grassroots efforts to unseat him.

The feud began a hundred years ago when Miles’s great-great-grandfather, Saint Abernathy, incited a miners’ rebellion that ended with a public execution at the hands of law enforcement. Now, Miles becomes the feud’s latest victim as the sheriff’s son and his friends sniff out the evidence, follow him through the woods, and beat him nearly to death.

In the hospital, the ghost of a soot-covered man hovers over Miles’s bedside while Sheriff Davies threatens Miles into silence. But when Miles accidently kills one of the boys who hurt him, he learns of other folks in Twist Creek who want out from under the sheriff’s heel. To free their families from this cycle of cruelty, they’re willing to put everything on the line—is Miles?

A visceral, unabashedly political audiobook that won’t let you go until you’ve reached the end, Compound Fracture is not for the faint of heart, but it is for every listener who's ready to fight for a better world.

LGBTQIA+ Fiction YA Fiction

Andrew Joseph White is a queer, trans author from Virginia, where he grew up falling in love with monsters and wishing he could be one too. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University in 2022 and has a habit of cuddling random street cats. Andrew writes about trans kids with claws and fangs, and what happens when they bite back.